


on pots and kettles and other similar things

by rarmaster



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Gen, and also symphonia's whole racism deal, anyway i just think they're neat and they should have talked like at all!!!, content warning for Genis says shit once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:15:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28020768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarmaster/pseuds/rarmaster
Summary: Sheena asks Genis to help her improve her cooking. This has nothing to do with the cooking at all.
Relationships: Sheena Fujibayashi & Genis Sage
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	on pots and kettles and other similar things

**Author's Note:**

> medi said to me last night "i just think sheena and genis should have gotten to interact" and i was like you know what! me too! so i wrote a fic, thinking about not only how sheena and lloyd are foils but also some other things that sheena has in common with genis, which..... only ever really gets touched in her flanoir lol (and, not even with genis, but with lloyd, which like fine but damn she SHOULD have talked about it with genis or raine, in a SKIT or SOMETHING, seriously)
> 
> also i dunk on zelos but please understand i do love him. it's just sheena and genis are the two most likely of the cast to roast him relentlessly.

“Genis, can you teach me how to cook?”

Genis looks up, not necessarily surprised by the request, but a little surprised to see it from Sheena.

“Uh,” he says, and blushes, which is a thing he wishes he’d do less over such _really minor_ things. He’s just flustered because it takes him a second to think of words! That’s nothing to blush over! “But, Sheena, I thought you already knew how to cook?” he protests. “I mean, you’ve cooked plenty before.”

Is Sheena the best cook here? Absolutely not. Genis wears that badge with honor, thank you! ( _Er, okay, Regal’s probably better than Genis is, but that’s besides the point!_ ) Anyway. Sheena’s not the best, but neither is she really the worst. Not that Raine sets a high bar to pass, exactly…

“Sure, sometimes it’s not tastes we’re used to,” Genis continues, because like. Pineapple in curry. But. “But… seriously. I think you cook fine.”

Sheena fidgets like she always does, fiddling this time with the edges of her obi. “It’s just that—” She cuts off, blushing slightly. When she continues, her tone is forced. “I just thought I’d like to improve my skills, a little! That’s all!!”

“Uh-huh,” Genis says, not believing her one bit. Honestly, her tells are as obvious as Lloyd’s.

“It’s true!!”

“This is about what Zelos said last night, isn’t it?”

“What? O- of course it isn’t!”

“Sheena.”

It’s funny, almost. He says her name in the same tone he says Lloyd’s when Lloyd’s trying to get away with dodging a subject, and it _works._ Sheena stops, scowling, but she huffs, too.

She sits down on the grass next to him. Genis—doesn’t exactly _move_ to make room for her, because it’s not like she sat down so close he _had_ to make room, but he _does_ lift the leg he had out and tucks it close to the other one in a way he wouldn’t had Lloyd or Colette or Raine sat down with him. Holding his knees, though, he leans towards her, turning up what his friends have brightly and collectively dubbed (to Raine’s dismay and Lloyd and Colette’s glee) the _obnoxious little brother_ vibes.

“Want to talk about it?” Genis asks.

“I dunno,” Sheena answers. Her knees are tucked up to her chest, and she buries her forehead in them. “It’s not- I mean I don’t—” She’s silent for a moment, and then she says: “Nah.”

Once again, she reminds Genis remarkably of Lloyd. He wonders if she’s dismissing the offer for the same reason. When Colette doesn’t want to talk about something, she’ll giggle and lie and say nothing’s wrong. When Lloyd doesn’t want to talk about something, he’ll dodge the question. The both of them—for some _stupid reason_ —are so terrible about admitting they have problems! Problems that they think aren’t _worth_ troubling anyone with! And apparently, Sheena thinks the same—

( _Well, Genis supposes maybe he and Raine aren’t much different, but. But!! It’s still infuriating when his friends do it!!_ )

“I can go set Zelos on fire if it’d make you feel better,” Genis offers, leaning back so he’s sitting normally.

It makes Sheena laugh, loud and proud. “Pff! Nah, nah, it’s fine. If I was really mad at him, I’d beat him up myself.” Straightening so she’s not bent over her knees, Sheena pounds a fist into her palm meaningfully. Genis laughs with her.

Which, is nice, but doesn’t solve the actual problem. Time to dig his heels in.

“But seriously, Sheena, why are you even listening to Zelos to begin with? You’re the first person who’d say he’s full of shit any other time—” Sheena snorts when he says shit, which isn’t fair, ( _and makes him blush, also not fair,_ ) because _she says it all the time._ “—because he is! He always is!”

“I mean, yeah,” Sheena agrees.

“Zelos is just being Zelos and you should ignore him. Your cooking is fine.”

Sheena does something that almost passes as a stretch, reaching her arms out before her and leaning with her whole body, finally settling with her chin on her knees again. Her hands grip her ankles. She doesn’t look at Genis, but at the setting sun.

Genis gives her a minute—if she’s as much like Lloyd as she has been this whole conversation, she might just share her thoughts on her own. If not, well, he’ll pry them out of her. She looks like she could use some prying.

“…what if he’s right, this time,” Sheena whispers.

It’s clearly something that is bothering her a lot. Genis feels extremely bad about bursting out laughing.

“I’m- I’m sorry, but— _Zelos_? _Right?_ ” Genis just laughs more.

Sheena whacks him in the arm—“Ow!” Genis yelps, because Sheena has an arm. He doesn’t back down though. “Seriously, though! Zelos absolutely isn’t the voice of authority on _cooking_!”

“It’s not about the cooking!” Sheena snaps.

Oh.

Clearly mortified, Sheena drops her head into her knees again.

“You know what,” she says, pressing her hands into the grass like she’s going to get up. “Never mind. I shouldn’t have bothered you—”

Genis reaches out to catch her. Sure, she could shove him off if she wanted—his grip isn’t _that_ strong, he’s twelve, and a mage, and _she’s a trained assassin_ —but it has the desired effect of keeping her in place long enough for him to speak.

“It’s because you don’t want to be a burden, isn’t it,” Genis says. It’s not, really, a question.

Sheena sends him a look. He replies with a shrug and a wry smile.

“Come on, you think I’m not used to seeing this from Colette?” he asks, and Sheena grimaces. ( _And Lloyd, is the thing. And Lloyd. But Sheena probably doesn’t even realize Lloyd does it._ ) “You’re not a burden, Sheena. And, once again, your cooking is fine. Improving it wouldn’t change anything, even if there _was_ something to change.”

Sheena sighs, long and slow, and Genis knows he’s won the argument. He grins wide.

“It’s just,” Sheena said, which is not, actually, what Genis expected. She does the thing where she doesn’t look at him again, instead extremely fascinated with pulling at how her hands are wrapped. She’s silent for a long, long moment, long enough Genis isn’t sure she’s going to speak at all.

If she were Lloyd, he’d tease her about losing a thought.

( _She’s not Lloyd, though, even if the two of them have a lot in common._ )

The wind blows. The sun moves a few inches further down in the sky.

“It’s just,” she repeats. “I’m a summoner, right?”

It must mean something to her that it doesn’t to Genis. “…right?” he says.

“Well… Humans can’t… I mean only elves can summon. Or- or you need elven blood, anyway.”

Now Genis gets it.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Sheena fidgets some more, then speaks, as if letting something that’s been boiling in her spill out after some long, long time. “So I’m- I don’t know if- if it was my parents—I mean I never knew my parents, how could I know! But maybe it was… maybe it was further back. Or. Or. I don’t know. But ever since I made the pact with Corrine, people… looked at me…” Genis knows the next word before she even says it. “…different.”

Genis says, very, very carefully, “I’m sorry,” and not _I don’t know if that’s the same,_ because it’s not Sheena’s _fault_ that her ears are round and it’s not Sheena’s _fault_ that she looks more human than elf and that doesn’t _change the fact_ that even if she can spend most of her life without everyone knowing, as soon as people _know,_ as soon as people _assume,_ people still treat her _different._

He wonders, for the very first time, if the people of Mizuho are hard on her not only for the failed summoning, but also because she might be a half-elf.

( _Well, Genis is pretty sure she’s certainly not half. It’s probably much further up in her ancestry. It’s disgusting that that’s enough, for some people._ )

Genis swallows.

“You know… how well you cook isn’t going to change that, right?” he says.

“…yeah,” Sheena admits. “I know.”

She seems pretty defeated. Genis supposes he can’t blame her. Her idea didn’t work out, and it was a bad idea anyway, and now she’s just sitting here feeling sorry for herself over things she has no control over. It’d be pretty mean of him if he pointed all of that out.

Instead Genis says: “Hey, since you can summon…”

“Hm?”

“I wonder if you can do magic.”

Sheena lifts her head to squint at him. Genis waggles his eyebrows.

“Come on, wouldn’t it be fun to light Zelos on fire when he’s being mean?”

Sheena slowly, slowly smiles, then laughs. “You know what,” she says, “It would. Let’s see if I can learn.”


End file.
